Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

Friday, April 01, 2016

Thirty Years of Climate 'Deception' Could Become Offense Under New Calif. Law

Fossil fuel companies in California could face investigation under
legislation introduced by a state senator who says the proposed law is
designed to hold industry accountable for "many years of public deception" and fraud over the scientific evidence about climate change. The Climate Science Truth & Accountability Act would extend the
statute of limitations under California's Unfair Competition Law from
four to 30 years, giving greater leverage to state and local prosecutors
to file civil charges in connection with the conduct of fossil fuel
companies going back decades. The legislation, introduced by Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), would
give prosecutors authority to delve into the issues dating to the heart
of the denial era. The legislation was inspired by investigative news stories, including those by InsideClimate News
(ICN), and an investigation by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)
that disclosed ExxonMobil and the oil industry were aware of the dangers
of global warming from the burning of fossil fuels as far back as the
1970s. The ICN stories and later articles by the Los Angeles Times in tandem with the Columbia University Journalism School—along with a UCS report
last year—revealed that the company went on to spearhead industry
efforts in the late 1980s to derail regulation of greenhouse gas
emissions and cloud public understanding of climate science...more